Women's Equality Day - Introspecting 100 Years Later
News Peg
National Women Equality Day, on August 26, celebrates the 1920 adoption of the 19th amendment in the United States Constitution, granting women citizens the right to vote.
Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the great event in American history, Central Park unveiled the Women's Rights Pioneers Monument, the first statue of real-life women in the historic park.
Unveiled at Central Park’s Literary Wall, the new monument depicts the pioneer women suffrage leaders, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojourner Truth at the historic Seneca Falls convention, where activists signed a petition demanding rights.
The statue portrays the elements of activism by showing Anthony planning, Stanton writing, and Truth speaking.
While it is certainly an occasion to celebrate a milestone year in American and women’s suffrage history, the question certainly rises - how equal are American women to men today 100 years later?
100 Years Later
Despite the fact that women have the same constitutional rights given to men in America, certain social and institutional facts tell us a different story about the level of equality women have in the country.
61% of women regularly take steps to avoid sexual assaults, according to a YouGov RealTime poll.
81% of women have experienced sexual harassment, according to NPR.
Along with the social dangers of sexual harassment against women, the economic divide between men and women is clear.
According to PayScale, women earn 81 cents for every dollar a man earns. The pay gap has only improved by 2% in the 2020 COVID-19 year compared to 2019, and 6% compared to 2015.
Women representation in government is also unequal. Women make up only 22% of the House of Representatives, and 26% in the Senate, the highest ever.
This quick snapshot of America gives us a reality check.
What It Means
The blatant social injustice, economic divide, and the slow political representation against women, tell us an even more obvious truth - women still face inequality in America.
The rights may be present, but the doors of opportunity are not. The constitution may have equality written all over it, but the social institutions and leaders don’t equally provide it.
We must understand that this inequality ultimately and at the root is a mental issue. A man’s outlook towards a woman must fundamentally first change.
Rather than an object of gratification, she is a human. Rather than one built for only certain roles in society, she is an individual with equal opportunities and capabilities to fit any role. Rather a means to exert power, she is an independent, powerful person.
Another Perspective At It
Interestingly, August 26th, this year, was also Radha Ashtami, a Hindu holiday based on the lunar calendar commemorating the birth anniversary of Goddess Radha, believed to be the eternal devotee of God - Lord Krishna.
While the debate over Radha’s legitimacy as an actual, historic figure is difficult to dissect, Hindu devotees believe Radha represents the epitome of devotion to a higher, spiritual path. Radha, beyond her mythological story, exemplifies pure selflessness and the highest love to the root that unites and resides in the world.
Radha for some devotees represents power ( shakti in Sanskrit), the energy that sustains the universe. When Radha deeply desires to unite with Lord Krishna, Lord Krishna responds, in the Bhagavatam, a Hindu ancient text, “we cannot marry, for we are one soul. How can I marry myself? We are one, equal.”
So, why bring Radha and a religious figure into the mix with Women’s Equality Day ?
Simply, because Radha embodies what a woman truly is: the selfless individual willing to sacrifice, the highest symbol of love and devotion, capable of achieving the deepest goals in life, a manifestation of unlimited energy, and equal to any man - as Radha is to Krishna.